Axisymmetric acoustic scattering from submerged prolate spheroidal shells

Abstract

The equations of motion for nonaxisymmetric vibration of prolate spheroidal shells of constant thickness were derived using Hamilton’s principle [S. I. Hayek and J. E. Boisvert, J. Acoust. Soc. Am. 114, 2799–2811 (2003)]. The shell theory used in this derivation includes shear deformations and rotatory inertias. The shell displacements and rotations were expanded in infinite series of comparison functions. These include associated Legendre functions in terms of the prolate spheroidal angular coordinate and circular functions in the azimuthal angle coordinate. The shell is insonified by a plane wave incident along the major axis. The external (heavy) fluid loading impedance was computed using an eigenfunction expansion of prolate spheroidal wavefunctions. Far-field scattered acoustic pressure spectra are presented for several shell thickness-to-half-length ratios ranging from 0.005 to 0.1, and for various shape parameters, a, ranging from an elongated spheroidal shell (a=1.01) to a spherical shell (a∼100). The far-field directivity of acoustic scattering is presented at selected frequencies. [Work supported by the ONR/ASEE Summer Faculty Research Program.]